PUBLIC LECTURE: Peak Oil: what are the risks?

Peak Oil: what are the risks?

This is a unique opportunity to find out what is happening with global oil price trends and discuss crucial factors for future planning.

Oil depletion, rising fuel prices and the forecast liquid transport fuel shortages are already affecting all Western Australians. Production is already declining in many giant oil-fields and global production is struggling to keep pace with demand. ‘Peak Oil’ is the crucial change when global oil production starts its final decline, perhaps in less than five years. The high price of oil is already hurting sectors in the WA economy, such as transport firms, agriculture, remote indigenous communities and regional tourism. However, we should all be planning ahead for the possibility of oil shortages, further price shocks and perhaps fuel rationing.

The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) is a prestigious organisation promoting professional discussion of Peak Oil, holding annual International Workshops on Oil Depletion in Europe. As President since 2003, Professor Aleklett is in a unique position to review the conflicting forecasts, to explain the basis for their differences and the probability of the differing scenarios. The possibility of Peak Oil occurring within five years should be included in all WA planning and business scenarios. Those who bet the farm on ‘business as usual’ are likely to suffer adversely.

Profile: Kjell Aleklett is Professor of Physics at the Department of Radiation Sciences at Uppsala University, Sweden. In 1978-79 and in 1983, he was invited to work with Nobel Prize winner Glenn T. Seaborg at the Lawrence Berkley Laboratory. His main research interest has been nuclear physics. His interest in the global energy situation started in 1995 and has intensified since. He organised the First International Workshop on Oil Depletion in May 2002. In 2003 he obtained research grants from the Swedish government and private industry to start the Uppsala Hydrocarbon Depletion Group.

More information about the Sustainable Transport Coalition can be found at www.stcwa.org.au